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LOGON & SYNCH SLOWS TO SERVER 2003
I AM CURRENTLY BY DEFAULT THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR OF A DOMAIN THAT USES 2X SERVERS LOADED WITH WINDOWS SERVER 2003 AND ABOUT 150 WORKSTATION COMPUTERS THAT LOGON TO A DOMAIN. ALL WORKSTATION COMPUTERS ARE LOADED WITH WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL AND SERVICE PACK 2. SOME OF THE WORKSTATIONS ARE ACCESSED BY THE SERVERS VIA A CISCO FIREWALL AND MANAGED SWITCH AND THE REST ARE DIRECTLY LINKED UP TO THE SERVERS VIA UNMANAGED SWITCHES. THE PROBLEMS BELOW APPLY TO ALL COMPUTERS WHETHER BEHIND THE FIREWALL OR NOT.
I WILL GIVE A FEW DATAILS ABOUT MY SETUP AND THEN THE SPECIFICS OF THE PROBLEM:
THE FIRST SERVER IS A STATIC IP OF XX.XX.XX.33. THIS MACHINE IS THE DNS SERVER OF THE NETWORK. IT DIDNT HAVE A DNS ASSIGNED ITESELF BUT AFTER READING OTHER POSTS ON THIS SITE I SET IT UP IN THE TCP/IP SETTINGS TO LOOK TO ITSELF AS THE DNS WHICH SEEMED TO HELP A LITTLE BIT (I ALSO HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO FIND THE DNS ON THE SERVER TO LOOK AT IT AND MAKE SURE TIS CORRECT). THE OTHER SERVER IS NEWER AND HANDLES ALL OF THE SQL QUERIES ALSO WITH A STATIC IP OF XX.XX.XX.161 AND POINTS TO THE .33 MACHINE AS A DNS. NOTE - THESE COMPUTERS ARE NOT FOR USE IN ACCESSING THE INTERNET - THEY RUN A DATABASE THAT IS NOT CONNECTED TO AN ISP AND IS PURELY FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY.
ALL DOMAIN WORKSTATIONS ARE SET-UP WITH THEIR OWN STATIC IP ON THE SAME RANGE. THE DNS FOR ALL WORKSTATIONS IS THE .33 MACHINE. THEY ARE NOT SET-UP WITH A SECONDARY DNS
I AM HAVING TROUBLE WITH LOGON / LOGOFF SLOWS. NOTHING DRASTIC LIKE 20 MINUTES BUT SOMETIMES 2-3 MINUTES AND SOMETIMES LONGER. THIS IS SOMETHING MY BOSS IS REALLY PUSHING ME TO GET RESOLVED SO THAT IT IS INSTANT OR AS CLOSE TO AS POSSIBLE.
WHEN LOGGING IN I CANT REALLY SEE WHAT THE ISSUE IS EXCEPT THAT APPLYING PERSONAL SETTINGS ET AL CAN CAN ABOUT 3 MINUTES. WHEN LOGGING OFF THE PROCESS IS MINIMUM 3 -4 MINUTES AND CAN BE MUCH LONGER. WHILE DOING THIS THE COMPUTER IS A) TRYING TO SYNCH DOCUMENTS WITH THE .33 SERVER AND B) TRYING TO SYNCH PROGRAMS WITH THE .161 SERVER. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I DONT PARTICULARLY WANT IT TO DO (SYNCH AT LOGOFF & LOGON). PREFERABLY THERE MUST BE SOME WAY TO MAKE THE XP WORKSTATIONS SYNCH PERIODICALLY WHILE THE USER IS LOGGED IN OR SYNCH THE FILES THAT WERE SPECIFICALLY USED ONLY.
ALSO, WHEN LOGGING OFF IT SAYS THAT IT IS RUNNING LOGOFF SCRIPTS. I DONT KNOW WHAT THOSE ARE OR HOW TO CONTROL WHAT IT IS DOING AS THIS POINT. BUT IT SEEMS ADDED INAPPLICABLE AS WINDOWS 2000 WORKSTATIONS DONT DO THIS.
WHEN LOGGING ON AND OFF WITH A WINDOWS 2000 COMPUTER (I HAVE ONE ONLY) THERE IS NO LAG IN THE LOG ON AND THE LOG OFF. IT IS PRETTY ISNTANT WITH NO LOGON/OFF SCRIPTS BEING RUN AND NO FILE/PGM SYNCH OCCURRING WHICH IS FAR PREFERABLE AND WHAT I AM TRYING TO ACHIEVE FOR THE XP DOMAIN WORKSTATIONS.
PLEASE HELP!
I WILL GIVE A FEW DATAILS ABOUT MY SETUP AND THEN THE SPECIFICS OF THE PROBLEM:
THE FIRST SERVER IS A STATIC IP OF XX.XX.XX.33. THIS MACHINE IS THE DNS SERVER OF THE NETWORK. IT DIDNT HAVE A DNS ASSIGNED ITESELF BUT AFTER READING OTHER POSTS ON THIS SITE I SET IT UP IN THE TCP/IP SETTINGS TO LOOK TO ITSELF AS THE DNS WHICH SEEMED TO HELP A LITTLE BIT (I ALSO HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO FIND THE DNS ON THE SERVER TO LOOK AT IT AND MAKE SURE TIS CORRECT). THE OTHER SERVER IS NEWER AND HANDLES ALL OF THE SQL QUERIES ALSO WITH A STATIC IP OF XX.XX.XX.161 AND POINTS TO THE .33 MACHINE AS A DNS. NOTE - THESE COMPUTERS ARE NOT FOR USE IN ACCESSING THE INTERNET - THEY RUN A DATABASE THAT IS NOT CONNECTED TO AN ISP AND IS PURELY FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY.
ALL DOMAIN WORKSTATIONS ARE SET-UP WITH THEIR OWN STATIC IP ON THE SAME RANGE. THE DNS FOR ALL WORKSTATIONS IS THE .33 MACHINE. THEY ARE NOT SET-UP WITH A SECONDARY DNS
I AM HAVING TROUBLE WITH LOGON / LOGOFF SLOWS. NOTHING DRASTIC LIKE 20 MINUTES BUT SOMETIMES 2-3 MINUTES AND SOMETIMES LONGER. THIS IS SOMETHING MY BOSS IS REALLY PUSHING ME TO GET RESOLVED SO THAT IT IS INSTANT OR AS CLOSE TO AS POSSIBLE.
WHEN LOGGING IN I CANT REALLY SEE WHAT THE ISSUE IS EXCEPT THAT APPLYING PERSONAL SETTINGS ET AL CAN CAN ABOUT 3 MINUTES. WHEN LOGGING OFF THE PROCESS IS MINIMUM 3 -4 MINUTES AND CAN BE MUCH LONGER. WHILE DOING THIS THE COMPUTER IS A) TRYING TO SYNCH DOCUMENTS WITH THE .33 SERVER AND B) TRYING TO SYNCH PROGRAMS WITH THE .161 SERVER. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I DONT PARTICULARLY WANT IT TO DO (SYNCH AT LOGOFF & LOGON). PREFERABLY THERE MUST BE SOME WAY TO MAKE THE XP WORKSTATIONS SYNCH PERIODICALLY WHILE THE USER IS LOGGED IN OR SYNCH THE FILES THAT WERE SPECIFICALLY USED ONLY.
ALSO, WHEN LOGGING OFF IT SAYS THAT IT IS RUNNING LOGOFF SCRIPTS. I DONT KNOW WHAT THOSE ARE OR HOW TO CONTROL WHAT IT IS DOING AS THIS POINT. BUT IT SEEMS ADDED INAPPLICABLE AS WINDOWS 2000 WORKSTATIONS DONT DO THIS.
WHEN LOGGING ON AND OFF WITH A WINDOWS 2000 COMPUTER (I HAVE ONE ONLY) THERE IS NO LAG IN THE LOG ON AND THE LOG OFF. IT IS PRETTY ISNTANT WITH NO LOGON/OFF SCRIPTS BEING RUN AND NO FILE/PGM SYNCH OCCURRING WHICH IS FAR PREFERABLE AND WHAT I AM TRYING TO ACHIEVE FOR THE XP DOMAIN WORKSTATIONS.
PLEASE HELP!
PCWindows Server 2003
Last Comment
CajunThomas
ASKER
hi ryansoto, Ok - so I actually dont know how to check the GPOs. I understand that these are under the Enterprise Manager? and then the logons are under the users field of the database but I dont know how to check the GPOs or what would be prefered or what would be causing trouble there. I am kind of learning about all this as I go along.
On the LAN of the .33 server - in the TCPIP the second DNS is indeed blank. and under the advanced TAB under DNS there is a DNS server listed but it is the machine itself - ie it sees itself as the Server and from what I have read this is what it should be doing.
On the other NIC card this was active and I have now disabled it.
Can you let me know what I am looking for as to GPOs?
On the LAN of the .33 server - in the TCPIP the second DNS is indeed blank. and under the advanced TAB under DNS there is a DNS server listed but it is the machine itself - ie it sees itself as the Server and from what I have read this is what it should be doing.
On the other NIC card this was active and I have now disabled it.
Can you let me know what I am looking for as to GPOs?
In general to GPO's curious as to what GPOS are applying. A huge list can slow down log on times, just trying to see if there were a massive amount of policies applying.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/technologies/featured/gp/faq.mspx
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/technologies/featured/gp/faq.mspx
ASKER
Sorry for teh delay on this. It took me a little while to get through the link on the GPOs that you provided. I had a look at these and there is not some massive list of GPOs that I can see though I dont know EXACTLY what I am looking at - it seems fine.
Where I think the problem lies is the folder Synch of OFF LINE FILES at Logon or Logoff. As everysingle doc and program that a user has installed seems to be synching with the server - even if the User has not looked at these files in months or used a program in sometime. From what I can see in other areas it looks like I need to turn off OFF LINE FILES and put in a folder redirection instead so that when the user needs a file, he gets that one which should end the massive synch times. In the GPOs I see there is a folder redirection clause enabled but I cant find how to turn off the OFF LINE FILES. Any Ideas?
Where I think the problem lies is the folder Synch of OFF LINE FILES at Logon or Logoff. As everysingle doc and program that a user has installed seems to be synching with the server - even if the User has not looked at these files in months or used a program in sometime. From what I can see in other areas it looks like I need to turn off OFF LINE FILES and put in a folder redirection instead so that when the user needs a file, he gets that one which should end the massive synch times. In the GPOs I see there is a folder redirection clause enabled but I cant find how to turn off the OFF LINE FILES. Any Ideas?
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ASKER
That does help, yes. And in the mean time I ran around each client station (a bit painstaking and probably able to be done faster but there you go) and disabled each of the work stations capacity to synch off line files altogether and deleted the off line files cache. I also saw in the GPOs that there was a logon script running so I checked this out and cleaned it up (it was looking for non-existant system printers and computers that were removed from the NW long ago). So we're getting there and so far much appreciated.
But one more question for you while I have your attention (or anyone else's if you dont know) -
When logging off saving personal settings can still take some time, though its definately less painfull than it has been to wait while the 7gb sync's were occurring. Its a smaller issue but I would appreciate your advice on speeding it up to as close to instant as possible as this is the last thing that I need to handle on this point.
But one more question for you while I have your attention (or anyone else's if you dont know) -
When logging off saving personal settings can still take some time, though its definately less painfull than it has been to wait while the 7gb sync's were occurring. Its a smaller issue but I would appreciate your advice on speeding it up to as close to instant as possible as this is the last thing that I need to handle on this point.
So first check DNS settings on the DNS server - go into the LAN connection tcpip properties and first dns you set to itself and the second should be empty unless you have another internal DNS server.
Under the advanced tab make sure no servers are listed there.
Now make sure that if you have more then 1 NIC card in this server it is set to disabled.
FInally I would check to see what GPO's are applying to the workstations. You might have some issue with the policies themselves casuing the long log on times.